This post is for Saturday, the day before the concert. If you want to read about *just* the concert, click here.
For my Sunday account (before the concert), click here.
For my Sunday account (after the concert), click here.

Arriving in NY + Fail!Welcome at JFK
I slept at around 1:30AM the night before and woke at 4AM to make sure I’m packed and ready for the flight at 6:30AM. Left the house at 4:45AM and arrived at the airport at 5:30AM (they had already started boarding).

Unfortunately there was a really long queue for Spirit, which was strange for such an early time in the morning. I talked to the nice lady at baggage check-in and she told me to go straight up and skip the line 😀 if my mom didn’t tell me to do that I might have missed the flight >< I also skipped the security check line by asking another lady and she let me use the priority line~ So I got inside within 15 minutes. After I got to the gate I realized I wasn’t late since they were still boarding earlier zones… Still it was better to wait there than outside security.

The flight was uneventful, during which I slept the whole time. I should have woken up when they asked if we needed drinks because my mouth was so dry when the flight arrived at 7:40AM (15 minutes early). I got my luggage within 30 minutes and looked for public transportation, which I found in the form of NYC Airporter. It stops at Penn Station, which is practically next to MSG and a few minutes of walking from my hotel (Radisson Martinique Broadway).

I got on the shuttle at 8:30AM and arrived at Penn Station around 9:15AM. Via the power of social networking I found out then that SHINee was arriving at 11AM instead of 11:30AM with SJ, f(x), and Kangta. Then I met with two friends (a girl who goes to Parsons and a guy from my high school who flew from Duke for the concert) and obtained directions to JFK from the hotel concierge, who told us it was cheaper and faster to take the LIRR then the AirTrain than waiting for a shuttle. We spent ~$34 total getting to JFK, and arrived at Terminal One a little after 11AM.

I called Yoona, who was there since 9AM, and found the throng of people surrounding the Terminal One arrivals exit. There were two security barriers on each side of the pathway and Yoona was on the other side in front; I didn’t see her until an hour or so later because I was in the back originally but somehow pushed to the front lol. I had videos of the people waiting but I deleted them because they didn’t have the artists in them T.T

I was standing next to some Chinese fans (one was holding a rectangular Changmin lightstick hehe), two Japanese fans (one had a sign for Key and gifts probably for him too ^^), and a few Korean fans. One of the Korean group came later and cut in front of me D: WTF. At least they didn’t get any better view of them than I did. On the other side there were a few Canadian fans with a huge flag (I was confused at first and thought they were from France because it was blue and had several fleur de lis on it). They were pretty rowdy and attracted attention from the Korean media that came off the plane later XD There was also a girl with a blond wig and leather jacket who was imitating Eunhyuk dancing Mr. Simple hehehe. She was awesome. I wish I got a cam of her.

We all watched the flight arrivals board with anticipation, and it had SHINee’s arrival time as 11:07AM. I got excited when the status change to “Landed” around 11:15AM. After waiting more than 10 minutes we wondered why they weren’t coming out, and some media had already arrived too. Then we realized they might be waiting for the other artists on the 11:30AM flight so we continued to wait. People from the Tokyo flight that SHINee was on started getting off, and the fans waiting were like “konichiwa~” which was incorrect since it’s morning time lol. They probably thought we were really weird xD We kept waiting and waiting and the second flight also showed “Landed” as its status around 11:40AM. Then people from that flight filed through (I could tell because they looked Korean) and the fans switched to “annyeonghaseyo~” instead. In between all this waiting people saw the SM Town bus outside screamed. Many people also randomly screamed when the media was filming so there were a lot of false alerts since we thought screaming = artists. The wait got LONGER AND LONGER. And finally people started leaving, as I heard the Chinese fans next to me say “they left already let’s follow the bus instead!” I wouldn’t believe them and kept waiting, but as it got even LONGER I realized it might actually be the case… By now there were less than 10 fans left so I went over to say hi to Yoona, and she told me the bodyguard told her “If I’m still here they haven’t left yet” so I believed her. My two friends were getting impatient with me by now since it was already 1:30PM and our SJ-World meeting + lunch started at 12PM and only lasted till 3PM (since the restaurant cleans the food at 3). After a few minutes, all the media and even the bodyguards left, so we decided to leave too.

It was so sad and later we found out that they left by going straight on the bus from their sponsored jet, and the bus outside the terminal was probably one for the staff only… A random guy told us that he saw 5 or 6 guys (very likely SHINee) we were waiting for being escorted from the airport by secret service I didn’t really believe him but then again.

SJ-World meetup
We got to the meetup pretty late, around 2:15PM, so we hurried and ate. Priscilla gave me my SJ-World merch (3 towels and a lightstick) plus Mr. Simple versions A and B I ordered a while back and decided to pick up instead of getting shipped. Here they are (some are missing or broken but I’ll explain later lol):
We took some pictures when we were leaving the restaurant but I didn’t use my camera XD

Checking in at Radisson Martinique and Wandering Around in Times Square
So by now Michelle (my hotel roommate) had called me and told me I could check in anytime and get my stuff, so my two friends and I went back to the hotel and just rested there until about 5PM when my roommates (the other two are Lixy and Lala) got back. One of my friends was using my slow-ass netbook to try to figure out where they were staying at since Shindong posted a picture of a kind of bird’s eye view from their balcony.

Around 5:30PM we went out to search for that hotel and walked all the way to Times Square (we had no idea where they were staying at yet), looking for similar architecture structure and layout as the buildings in the picture had xD We got to Times Square and I went to Forever 21 to look for a white blazer for my Genie outfit that I wanted to do for Halloween, but I couldn’t find any ;~; If we had walked around more we might have seen the artists D: because they were staying at the W just a little west of the famous steps.

Dinner and finding out where our oppars are + Noraebang
I had to return to Korea Town to eat at 7PM sharp, so we went to Wonjo and there was a HUGE line. I felt so bad for my two friends because originally my roommates only reserved for 12 people and there were no spots open so I had to tell them to go elsewhere to eat 😦 Turns out they didn’t eat but just went back to Radisson’s lobby… I’m so bad sometimes. Here I met (Da)lena, Ashley, Stacey, and others (they all knew each other from Twitter and came from all over the US o_O). So I’m having my delicious dinner and I get a call from Yoona saying she FOUND OUT WHERE THEY WERE STAYING AT. She told me not to tell anyone for now, but soon after my dinner-mates find out via Twitter (oh, the power of social networking x_x). We hurry and finish eating and decide to go stalk out the W Hotel.

I had four people with me and we strolled around Times Square, hoping to bump into them. Then when I was recording the SMTown LED billboard one of them was like AHHHHHHHHHHHH THERE THEY ARE so we saw the big W and realized someone was coming out or going in. I had no idea who it was because by the time we got there it had quieted down (just a few steps but still). We waited for a little bit and I think Shindong came out (but I couldn’t see ANYTHING due to the mass amount of people). My friend who was looking up where they lived earlier suggested going to a nearby H&M since SHINee supposedly always visits H&M no matter where they go and she’s Taemin-crazy like me. We walk away from Times Square, and I’m was getting a bad vibe as I do that. Sure enough, the H&M we went to had just closed AND I got a text saying I’m almost late for noraebang (at 10PM). When I get to noraebang I find out that I HAD JUST MISSED KYUHYUN BECAUSE I WENT AWAY. MY GROUP OF 12 PASSED BY HIM WHEN THEY WERE LEAVING THE W HOTEL. ;~; This was the first sign of my horrible luck that weekend. Actually the second after the whole airport fiasco.

I went to noraebang and sang a few songs, then got a call from my high school friend who goes to school in NYU, so I went downstairs and met up with him for 30 minutes and just chatted at the entrance of the place basically LOL. Back to noraebang, I didn’t feel like singing and felt depressed that I didn’t get to see anyone that day… then I texted Danny (a friend I met on Facebook) who went to the hotel with Yoona after I left and he said he was still camped out. This was around 11:30PM. So I quickly pay Lixy my part and hurry to the hotel.

MOAR STALKING (SUCCESS!)
Not even 10 minutes after I get there, I HEAR SCREAMING AND I RUN TO THE SIDE OF THE STREET (since people were lined up in front of the hotel no one was allowed to stand on side of the street) AND GUESS WHO I SEE? MY FIRST SIGHTING?! KADSLFJSAPDOIHGFAWPEGIHWA HENRYYYYYYYYYYY! He’s so perfect and gorgeous and amazing in real life and his skin looked like it was glowing ;A; I’m probably exaggerating but YOU GOTTA UNDERSTAND. IT’S HENRY. HE’S LIKE MY 2ND BIAS IN THE WHOLE SUJU. I’M SURPRISED I DIDN’T LOSE MY SHIT RIGHT THERE. I was so shocked though, I just stood there and didn’t have time to take out my camera… I saw a few people chase after him and wondered if they were going to follow him around, then I got Danny’s text (I hadn’t even found him in the crowd yet) saying “I’M FOLLOWING HENRY!!!!!!” and I was like omfg what you doing asdfiosajpghiapef. I was still in shock when he came back, and told me the people who followed Henry got pictures with him (SIDAOFJSAPOGHSA SO FUCKING JEALOUS!!! WHY DID I NOT DO IT). This was my third show of bad luck as it’s the ONLY TIME I saw Henry outside the concert

Not much longer later, another round of screaming began and this time it was Girls’ Generation’s Jessica. She was wearing sunglasses but even then she looked gorgeous. Cold though, true to her name of Ice Princess. She ignored everyone and just kept walking ahead, and Danny followed her lollll. I’m too intimidated by girls like that to do that. Danny came back empty-handed though as expected, and said Jessica walked really fast and went straight into a cab without talking to anyone. XD Maybe I should have been quick and snapped a photo of her since my friend back in Michigan couldn’t go to the concert and had to sell her tickets because of a massive influx of midterms and projects this week.

We kept waiting, and I sighted Yoona again. This time she had a story to tell me. She said she saw Yesung coming out into his cab, so she went up to him and literally almost left in the car with him (she actually got in) before being dragged out by the bodyguard, all to give him that Awkward Turtle keychain XD So dedicated and courageous. She said she ran up to the car as it was leaving and yelled “I FUCKING LOVE YOU YESUNG!!!!” inside and got a weird look from him lmaoooo. At least she made an impression 🙂

We migrated to the other side of the hotel (across from where all the people were waiting), and realized the reason no one was standing there was that it’s a designated smoking zone and the security would tell us to move back as to not “take up the space” for the smokers… okay… Next sighting was almost a false alarm, as Yoona thought it was Yesung returning (it was also a black car, but a van and not a sedan). I learned from my mistakes and had my camera ready, and ta-da! My first stalker fancam! XD So it turns out the person returning to the hotel was Donghae (and apparently he was filming and doing stuff in Times Square before returning because pictures of him wearing the same outfit and sitting at a table and holding the same flower bouquet in Times Square surfaced after I left New York) I trained my camera on the car door early (maybe too early since I had about 2 minutes of nothing happening recorded LOL) and first two guys came out (probably manager and bodyguard), then that glorious man. Lee Donghae. I was spazzing like crazy inside but since he’s not my bias (not even top half for me in SJ) I kept my sanity. I had to record it for Michelle and Lixy though, so it was good I wasn’t screaming and shit. Looking back though, it looked like I did scream so I took off the audio and put in him singing instead ^^ Donghae was so cute, he waved casually to fans, flopping his arms xD and high-fived one who was hiding right by the glass door in the hotel lol. You can see all of that in the short 10 or so seconds below~ (After I upload it that is)

I wanted to wait more, but it was already 1AM and Yoona said she needed to go back and at least shower and get ready for waking up at 4AM to get in line for GA later, and Danny was getting sleepy (geez guys it’s only 1AM). So I compromised and asked them to wait 30 minutes more just in case Henry comes back so I can tackle him for a picture. That did not happen. I think he returned much later, and had a precious troll moment: